


Alone Together

by HopefullySpencer



Series: Solangelo Week 2019 [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Ancient greece?, But I'm rolling with it, Happy Ending, I don't think this is how the worship of greek gods went, Just picture them all in chitons, M/M, Secret Relationship, Secret dating, Sun/Moon - Freeform, The setting is weird, it's weird - Freeform, secret powers, solangelo, solangeloweek2019
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 09:28:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19438636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopefullySpencer/pseuds/HopefullySpencer
Summary: Will is the son of Apollo--Allegedly. He is worshiped for this.Nico is the son of...something evil that no one can explain. He is shunned for this.But with each other, there's no need to pretend to be anything they're not. With each other...they can be themselves.





	1. Chapter 1

I don’t know how Nico gets here every night.

Every night before this I’ve fallen asleep under a tree on a hill near the camp, far away from my mother and the worshippers who crowd me by day. I’m surprised they don’t swarm me while I sleep. I guess for that I’m grateful. Every night I fall asleep to the brilliant sunset painted across the sky and wake to the cool morning, with dew on my hair and the grass beside me and sometimes, if I’m lucky, I’ll get to watch the sunrise alone in peace. Or at least I used to—more often than not lately I find myself sleeping through sunrise all together. It might have something to do with his late night visits.

“Boo,” he whispers in my ear—I startle but don’t scream. Lucky for both of us.

“Don’t _do_ that,” I say, sitting up with a hand over my heart.

He grins at me and my heartbeat races for a different reason. At first I found his grin unsettling, a sharp white smile paired with messy hair and dark shadows under his eyes. Now I see his grin and…I’m lucky I’m already on the ground, because his smile makes my knees so wobbly I’m not sure if they could hold me up.

“You’re so _dramatic,_ ” he says, pushing my messy hair out of my eyes and behind my ear. I hope he doesn’t notice me swoon.

“How do you do that?” I ask for the millionth time. “How do you just show up out of nowhere every night when there’s not supposed to be anyone around here for miles. You have to tell me.”

And he says: “Kiss me and maybe I will.”

So I do.

His lips are warm when they meet mine. Just a peck. But I come away breathless all the same.

“Again,” I plead, like he wasn’t the one who asked in the first place.

His cool fingers slip into my hair, guide my chin and tilt my head so that our noses don’t meet before our lips.

I’ve never kissed anyone before, ever, especially not like this. His body draws me closer, I wrap my arms around his neck and he sighs into my mouth. I always thought it would be bad, awkward, that I’d be so nervous I’d do it wrong—but if I am, Nico doesn’t comment on it.

We stay like that for so long that when we break for breath, my lips are puffy and I’ve completely forgotten our deal.


	2. Chapter 2

I guess Nico left after I fell asleep, because he’s not here when I wake up. I didn’t expect him to stay, but it’d be nice for a change. Except…then he’d see who I really am. And he’d have to meet my mother, I don’t think I’d wish that on my worst enemy, let alone the guy I’m seeing. My mom means well but…

“Will!” A shrill voice calls. Speak of the devil and she shall appear. She’s already charged up my hill before I have time to answer her.

“Will,” She repeats, already scolding me. “You missed morning prayers— _again._ ”

I stand and push my hair out of my face. “We pray three times a day. I’m sure Apollo is having his ego stroked quite enough without me in attendance.” I brush past her and make my way to the center of camp where our tent is.

No one will say anything about it but I know why my mother was made high priestess before I was born. She’s the only person in our community to have made an actual connection with the god we worship. And they consider me the result.

I don’t know if that’s true, but I don’t know how I can deny it, either. Not when—

The light swirls around my fingers when I snap, making the dim space just a little bit brighter. It’s…yeah it’s kind of hard to deny when I can do that. But I can and will until proven otherwise. It’s not like my mother can keep me here forever just because I’m her ticket to honor.

As soon as I shove my hand under the bed everything is lit up like dawn. I’ve just grabbed my bag when I hear the footsteps behind me. As soon as I stop focusing on it, the light in my hand dissipates.

She scowls at me as I sling the bag over my shoulder and start to walk away from her, but she puts an arm out to stop me.

Her eyes are blue and icy…she’s young but worn from leading out community for so long. I used to sit with her by whatever stream we had set up camp by that month and point out every one of our similarities with a smile so wide my cheeks hurt. I stare back at her now and wonder if we have the same scowl.

“You’ve been _blessed_ with these gifts and you squander them on useless tasks,” she spits.

I shake my head. “They’re not _gifts._ It’s as natural as breathing, Naomi. But you don’t see me telling anyone their breath is a waste of lungs, now, do you?”

With the look on her face you’d think I just called her something foul. I make the most of her shock and slip under her arm and out of the entrance.

I manage to make it to the edge of the woods without being trailed by any of Apollo’s followers. The pine scent hits my nose immediately and the brush of stick and pine needles under my sandals calms me as I venture further into the trees. My mother is _not_ going to be happy I left camp for a whole day—but our most recent fight is a great excuse to sneak away. I’ve got to set up for tonight. Nico is going to love it.

***

“Nico!” Hazel intercepts me before I can make it back to my door. “Nico, your mother is looking for you—she’s not happy.” She tells me.

I shrug. “She’s never happy.”

Hazel is frantic though. “No, Nico, you don’t understand!” Her golden eyes are wide like I’ve never seen them before. “You can’t go home, Nico, I heard her talking earlier, she’ll—“

“Miss Levesque,” My mother’s cold, stern voice stops her dead. All she has to do is stand there, arms crossed over her chest and her face a steely mask and that’s enough to silence my friend. “I’ll ask you only once to leave—there’s only room enough in this city for one outcast and,” She pauses, staring her down. “I don’t think Marie wants you to bring any attention to that… _talent,_ of yours.”

Hazel’s only response is a whimper—and then she’s gone, turned heel and sprinting off down the cobbled street. My mother tends to have that effect on people. Suddenly I can feel my heartbeat in my throat and I’m about to take off after Hazel when an iron grip seizes my arm.

Mama marches me into the house. My eyes don’t have time to adjust in the dim light and so my foot catches on a loose floorboard—she yanks me along anyway, to the back of the house, Bianca’s room, and slams the door shut behind us. Bianca is already sitting on a chair in the corner, her head bowed like she’s praying.

Mama grips my shoulders and pushes me onto Bianca’s bed, messing up the neatly madeup sheets. Her bear stares forward, a silent observer of all that’s unfolding. 

“I know what you’ve been doing, Nico. That you’ve been sneaking off in the dead of night—and how exactly you’re doing it. It’s not your fault you were born with a darkness inside of you, but you continually choose to indulge it. If you live in the shadows, you will be _nothing_ but shadow.”

Not for the first time, I feel the adrenaline rush through me and turn my veins icy. But unlike all the other times, I open my mouth to respond.

“It’s not the darkness you’re thinking of, Mama. It’s not evil, _I’m_ not evil. How can you devote yourself to lady Artemis and still forsake the night when you see it in your own son?” I demand. “How can you worship the night and still fear _me?_ ”

She shakes her head. “You are nothing like Lady Artemis—Artemis illuminates the night and cares for us while the darkness consumes the land. We mourn her on the New Moon—you celebrate it. I didn’t raise you to be a heathen, and yet…”

“Something evil tempted me the night you were conceived. Corrupted me, twice, but still I found my way back to Artemis’ shining light. The same can be true for you, my son, even if you were born half evil, you are still half of mine.”

“Bianca!” She shouts and my sister’s head snaps up to reveal her face, puffy and red from crying. Mama produces a rope from the folds of her robes and places it into Bianca’s shake hands.

“Tie him up tight. I’ve had the rope blessed—he won’t be able to sink into the shadows as long as he cannot shake the knots.”

She chokes a sob and climbs up onto the bed behind me. I hold my wrists still for her against my back. Mother loves us but…I don’t know what she would do if Bianca failed. I won’t make this harder for her than it already is.

“What exactly is your plan, Mama? How do you plan to separate me from the darkness you so hate? Banishment? _Exorcism?”_

She meets my eyes with a cold determination and a mouth set into a straight line to keep from cracking. She loves me but…this is not the love I want to receive.

“Precisely.”

Bianca shudders when she slams the door shut again, and for once I can’t wipe away the tears that fall down her cheeks.

***

When I’m shaken awake in the middle of the night, it’s not Nico’s face I see in the moonlight. Instead it’s my mother, a pack on her shoulder and her sandals tightly laced.

“We’ve just received a summons.”

I rub my eyes and my thoughts immediately go to my pond. I had planned on taking Nico there tonight.

“What do you mean? We’re leaving now?”

She nods. “Come pack your things. It’s time to put your gifts to good use. You have an exorcism to preform.”


End file.
